You jump from a flying bus and paraglide onto an island, where you immediately begin smashing things with a pickax in order to gather the materials you will need to build a shelter. There are 99 others with you, and only one of you will be alive at the end.

Welcome to Fortnite Battle Royal, a free online video game released in 2017 by Epic Games that has captivated millions of young players and drawn the ire of millions of parents who are concerned about the amount of time their kids spend playing the game.

"I have a 9-year-old that plays that game day and night on the weekends and after school on the weekdays," Maribel Arevalos told the Sun-News in response to a Facebook question. "We take the remotes with us to work to prevent him from playing, but he also has his cell phone for emergencies and he has that game on his phone as well."

Arevalos said her son doesn't want to eat dinner with the rest of the family because it means time away from the game, and she added that getting him out of the chair while he is playing Fortnite is a struggle.

"This game has my son really addicted," she said. "I need help because I am to the point I want to break the console."

Buy Photo

Fortnite Battle Royal is a multi-platform game with an open map and endless gameplay. Developer Epic Games reported more than 125 million registered players in June.(Photo: Josh Bachman/Sun-News)

That is exactly as intended, said Barbara Chamberlain, project director of the Learning Games Lab at New Mexico State University, where students are learning to develop new video games.

“It’s an incredibly well-designed game,” Chamberlain said. “It is designed to be engaging, and it’s very successful at that.

“I’m not an addiction expert, but I know a lot about engagement, and it’s highly engaging,” she added.

Chamberlain said video games in general are compelling because they give instant feedback and allow players to track their progress. With Fortnite, once a person is killed they are able to follow, and learn from, the person who killed them.

“The premise is, I play, and if you best me, I suddenly am following you, which means I get to watch and learn immediately from somebody who is better than me,” Chamberlain said. “That follows until the last person. So, it’s a game that interestingly blends what I can do with how I can learn to be better at that.

“And that is compelling," she said. "We forget how compelling it is to learn something new; how compelling it is to follow somebody who's slightly better at doing something than we are and to watch them.”

So compelling, in fact, that the hours can slip by without the player realizing it.

It’s free … sort of

One of the reasons Fortnite has become so popular is that it is free to download and can be played on a number of different platforms.

But even though the game is free, Forbes reported in July that Epic Games has earned more than $1 billion since its introduction. That’s because players can purchase newer and fancier outfits, equipment and moves. The purchases won’t help in terms of winning the game, but are still incredibly popular.

Catina Dominguez Beck of Las Cruces, the mother of five boys, said she ended up having to take the game away from one of her sons after she noticed money had been withdrawn from her credit card account.

She said her 16-year-old son became addicted to the game.

“I don’t see him unless he comes up to eat,” Dominguez Beck said. “I honestly have no idea what the game is about, but he plays all night. I could hear him screaming.”

Dominguez Beck said she had to take action when she found money had been withdrawn from her credit card. First she cancelled that card. Then, when it happened again, she took away the game.

“He has always had Playstation and Xbox, and I’ve never seen any of my kids become that crazy about a game,” she said.

What made it worse was that her 6-year-old granddaughter was also learning how to play.

“People are just getting really deep and intense and ridiculous,” she said. “My advice to parents is, be the adult.”

How much is too much?

We often think of addiction as coming from chemicals that people eat, drink, smoke, snort or inject to excess. But, as is the case with compulsive gamblers, playing games can also be an addictive behavior.

Earlier this year, the World Health Organization recognized “gaming disorder” in its International Classification of Diseases.

It is described as “impaired control over gaming, increasing priority given to gaming over other activities to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other interests and daily activities, and continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences.”

Buy Photo

Fortnite Battle Royal is free to download, but players can purchase outfits, equipment and moves.(Photo: Josh Bachman/Sun-News)

If that is the disease, there’s no question that Fortnite is the carrier.

“Fortnite is not for everybody. Gaming is not for everybody,” Schwartz said. “But, people are making millions of dollars playing a kids game.”

Epic Games has announced that it will provide $100 million in prize money to fund Fortnite tournaments.

Chamberlain, head of the Learning Games Lab, said most people have had at least one experience where they get caught up playing a game and don’t realize how much time has passed. Likewise, it is not uncommon for parents to be shocked by the amount of time their children spend on video games.

“A good reaction to that is to involve the child in that decision,” Chamberlain said. “Did you mean to spend that much time? What are you giving up to spend this much time doing that? Given that, do you still think it’s worth it?”

She said children who learn how to set their own limits will likely make better decision as adults.

“We’re guiding them all to adulthood, what skills do we want them to have in adulthood? Well, they’re going to have digital tools in adulthood, so we want them to learn how to set their own goals and parameters and guidelines,” she said.

Why Fortnite?

There are new video games introduced all the time, so what is it about Fortnite that makes it special?

Schwartz said he was attracted by the ability to watch and learn from others, just as Chamberlain suggested.

“What really got me into it was watching other people playing," Schwartz said. "They really seemed to be having a good time, and watching them has influenced my game play."

Fight against 99 other players to achieve a Victory Royale in the online shooter Fortnite.(Photo: Deseret News)

Fortnite is a shooter game, and the goal is to kill the competition. But there is no blood and gore. The graphics are bright and colorful, often whimsical. And, as Schwartz noted, when someone gets shot it is referred to as an “elimination” not a “kill.”

The game can be played individually, as a duo or as a team. Players communicate with each other via headset, and there is a great deal of teamwork and coordination involved. Schwartz said he typically plays with a gamer from California who he met through Fortnite.

Chamberlain said multiplayer games allow people to have social interaction with those whom them may never meet in person.

"Fortnite absolutely gives you that social experience, but you may not be with people you know,” Chamberlain said. “Does it make a difference if I’m playing a game with someone I’ve never met? Still, that bonding and that social experience, that happens. All learning is social. We all seek to work with others, and this gives us the opportunity for that. It is a way to team up.”

Schwartz said Fortnite is different from any of the thousands of other shooter games on the market.

“It’s completely different form any other game I’ve ever played,” he said. “There’s no other game where you’re able to drop on map with 100 people. The building is what makes Fortnite Fortnite. There’s no other game where you can build to protect yourself from bullets so quickly.”

Chamberlain said games teach problem-solving skills, and learning from others. Children have digital skills now that will have any number of useful applications in the future.

But, she added, it is also important that they read books, play outside, listen to music, learn art — do all of the things that too often get squeezed out by the video game monster.

“Talk to your kids about how this game will absolutely take all of the time you give it, happily,” she said.